THE $WAMP

Pompeo Spent Thousands on Custom Pens for Potential Donors: Report

Pompeo spent $10,000 in taxpayer funds on the special pens from China, according to FOIA documents.

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spent $10,000 of taxpayer money on embossed pens for dinner guests, according to documents obtained by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. When he was secretary of state, Pompeo and his wife held a set of dinners that were only loosely related to his job. The so-called Madison Dinners were “events [that] were essentially using federal resources to cultivate a donor and supporter base for Pompeo’s political ambitions,” NBC News previously reported. The custom pens cost $26 each and were made in China, a country Pompeo and then-President Trump had criticized for taking manufacturing jobs from the U.S.